Loading...
4 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
- Local governments budgeting: a portuguese analysis of central dependencyPublication . Costa, Cláudia S.; Rodrigues, MiguelThe most recently challenges in Public Management are felt in several countries, which lead to the appearance of a set of innovative initiatives in the field of the Public Administration. This concept, more or less global (kellt, 2001), of administrative reform is known as the New Public Management and appears with the goal to improve the efficiency, the effectiveness and citizen satisfaction in public services. Is mainly based in the introduction of market type mechanism and the adoption of private management tools. It promotes the competition between public and private agents in order to succeed an improvement in service quality, at the same time that it reduces production costs (Hartley, Butler e Benington, 2002, p. 388). According to NPM models presented by Ferlie, Ashburner, Fitzgerald e Pettigrew (1996) that takes into account that there isn’t a clear definition of what it’s the NPN, the agenda of administrative reform in Portugal, is base on the two first’s models. It’s settled in politic of budgetary restriction, decentralization and atomization of Public Administration. Although it’s autonomy, the local governance also is affected by theses options of Central Administration. If in the countries of Anglo-Saxon origin, the model of reform of local power, it’s based in the adoptions of specific programs of management as the Compulsory Competitive Tendering, o Best Value, in Portugal the reality is different. The administrative modernization was made mainly by changes in the administrative organization and in the transfer of power between the different levels of Portuguese Public Administration, rather than by the implementation of specific management programs of modernization. This is due to the classic/continental administrative model which still is the Portuguese administrative mainframe. Reforms nowadays are still being implemented through financial legislation as a way of Central Administration spread reforms ideology to Local Governments. The local administration stars to win relative importance after 24 of April of 1974. This level of administration is characterized by autonomy and decentralization principles. Actually, this local power is guide by a new law of local financial. It’s relevant to analyse and debate the consequence of this new law and understand it’s proposed in a NPM reform context. This paper is based on a Master project and it seeks this objectives. This constitutes a challenge to analyse in comparison with the others the degree of bigger centrality and/or autonomy that the same ones reflected.
- Reckless driving in Portugal: the deterrent impact of increased penalties on traffic accidentsPublication . Tavares, António F.; Mendes, Sílvia M.; Costa, Cláudia S.Portugal is among the few OECD countries that are often cited as examples every time traffic statistics are published. Unfortunately, the reason is that it tops the charts on accident and mortality figures. Also unfortunate is that the underlying causes remain a matter of speculation. This paper is the first systematic look at traffic policy in Portugal. It is the first of three parts1 of a government-funded effort at sponsoring an empirical analysis of Portuguese policy on road mortality. Given that temporal statistics on traffic accidents have only recently begun to be collected, we are limited to traffic policies that have been implemented in the 1990s. We are also limited to aggregate data, given that there is no systematic collection on individual-level data in Portugal. Specifically, we examine the impact of a sentencing policy that raised the statutory penalties for reckless driving and other traffic offences in the mid 1990s. In 1995, Portugal ranked second only to Hungary in fatality rates on motorways (Page 2001). Were Portuguese drivers deterred by this increase in the severity? To what extent is this policy change associated with a reduction in the accident rate resulting in injury? It has become commonplace in criminology, especially among European criminologists (Tonry 2005), to almost expect an absence of a relationship between criminal acts and punishment, thus, of course contradicting deterrence theory.
- The impact of fiscal decisions on local elections: an exploratory study of PortugalPublication . Costa, Cláudia S.; Camões, PedroThe analysis of fiscal performance is a hot topic either to policy makers or researchers and fiscal discipline is a key value in public finance management at the national and local levels. This growing attention to discipline may be explained with fiscal crisis and strict resource limitations, since in the three last decades a large part of those governments had high and persistent deficits and public debt. Fiscal performance may also be an instrument that voters considered at the ballots. Elections are the main accountability instrument, used by voters to evaluate the incumbent’s performance. Voters elected the incumbents if they consider satisfactory their performance; or otherwise they elect opponent candidates. The objective of this paper is to analyze relationship between several dimensions of fiscal performance and the probability of incumbent re-election, focusing on 2005 municipal elections. Based on public finance and public choice literatures we test some well-known hypothesis such as fiscal illusion and fiscal conservatism of voters.
- The impact of deterrence policies on reckless driving: the case of PortugalPublication . Tavares, António F.; Mendes, Sílvia M.; Costa, Cláudia S.In this paper, we test the effect of three different criminal deterrence theory policy tools: criminal certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment. Whereas most criminal deterrence studies in this field focus on the former two components of deterrence theory, this study also examines the potential deterrent effect of the latter component. Using a time-series design with monthly data, we estimate the effects of an increase in the threat of punishment for traffic offenses resulting from a general increase in fines for traffic offenses, an increase in the probability of getting caught with a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) level outside the legal limits, and the enactment of an “on-the-spot” fine payment policy in Portugal. We find strong evidence to support a severity effect. An increase in the statutory severity of sentence maxima for traffic violations leads to a decrease in accident and injury rates—approximately an average 0.5 percent reduction in monthly accident and injury rates. Changes in the BAC levels and the mandatory swift payment policy did not produce any convincing deterrence impact.